As Tom Telesco plans to wheel and deal, we will venture one prediction. The GM figures to be less busy than he was last year, concerning one spot on the defense.

That position is strong inside linebacker, next to Donald Butler.

Do NFL executives write up to-do lists? Telesco may have used red ink last year, real or cyber, for this spot.

First, he cut Takeo Spikes, the starter in 2011-12. The move was no shocker. Spikes had slowed down. Still, teammates voted him an inspirational award each season.

So, the rookie GM isn't the sentimental type.

As a bonus, Telesco may have gained favor with the football gods. They seem to delight in tormenting Spikes. A cruel story to tell, but here it is in three paragraphs:

Spikes sought his first playoff trip when he came to the Chargers in 2011, joining a team that won four AFC West titles in five years. "I'm chasing the ring," he said entering his 14th season.

Cue to trap door. Or Gollum. The Chargers fell short in 2011 and 2012 while the 49ers, Spikes' most recent former employer, made two NFC title games and the Super Bowl, and while his first employer, the Bengals, reached consecutive postseasons for the first time in 30 years.

Spikes never found a taker after Telesco cut him. Without him the Chargers claimed the AFC's last playoff spot and beat the Bengals in the first round. The Spikes Bowl.

The football gods owe Takeo Spikes a very large pension plan.

Telesco moved to replace Spikes. He claimed Packers castoff D.J. Smith, followed by a bold combo play: he traded up seven spots in the second round to draft Manti Te’o, to fill a void the GM deemed “pretty glaring.”

Behind Spikes, Telesco inherited two other A.J. Smith acquisitions of 2011 in second-round pick Jonas Mouton and undrafted free agent Bront Bird. They would open training camp as backups to Te’o.

Mouton tore a knee ligament on the first day of camp, ending his season, and Te'o injured his right foot in the first preseason game. Days before the opener, Telesco cut Smith and imported inside linebackers Reggie Walker and Terrelle Manning.

Ultimately, things settled down. Te'o played the final 15 games, though he came off the field on most third downs.

Question: what moves, if any, should Telesco make to build depth behind Te’o?

Conceivably, the medicals on Te’o’s right foot may be a small piece of the puzzle. Telesco confirmed to 1090’s Darren Smith last week that Te’o had offseason surgery on his foot. He said the surgery is expected to speed up the healing process of a stress reaction, allowing Te’o to be ready when team workouts resume in April. At what point the Chargers learned Te'o had a "stress reaction," not just a sprained foot, Telesco didn't say.

Te’o, who made all 51 games at Notre Dame, started 15 of the 18 games and played in 62 percent of the defense’s snaps. Among the team’s 11 linebackers, only Butler saw more snaps.

Bird, 24, is a restricted free agent. Walker, 27, is an unrestricted free agent who was useful at outside linebacker after Te'o returned. Mouton, who turns 27 in March, is under contract.

Also on the roster are two “futures” players: Manning, released by the Packers last August; and Zach Boren, who is listed at fullback but also played inside linebacker for Ohio State.

Bottom line, the Chargers may want to draft a developmental player here yet should expect better from Te’o and his backups than they got in 2013. Consider that Te’o worked only nine preseason snaps and may have been slowed by the stubborn foot injury; the relentless Walker had all of one start in four seasons with Arizona; and Bird had never started in his two seasons before standing in for Te'o in the opener. Mouton is an exception. He faces a learning curve as steep as he did last summer.